Cygnet to put on edgy 'Hat'

Old Town theater's season also takes in 'Spring Awakening,' more

Bobby Cannavale (left) and Chris Rock in a scene from the 2011 Broadway production of "The ----- With the Hat." Cygnet Theatre has announced it will stage the San Diego premiere of the Stephen Adly Guirgis play as part of its 2013-14 season.
— AP /Boneau/Bryan-Brown, Joan Marcus

Bobby Cannavale (left) and Chris Rock in a scene from the 2011 Broadway production of "The ----- With the Hat." Cygnet Theatre has announced it will stage the San Diego premiere of the Stephen Adly Guirgis play as part of its 2013-14 season.
/ AP /Boneau/Bryan-Brown, Joan Marcus

Cygnet Theatre's just-announced 2013-14 season is all kinds of interesting, but we're going to talk about the final show first, since it's destined to become the most talked-about production (even if we can't exactly say its name).

The Old Town-based company has revealed that it will stage the San Diego premiere of Steven Adly Guirgis' play "The ------ With the Hat." And no, that's not a "Wheel of Fortune" puzzle - it's the version of the title our editing-standards team is going with for the moment.

The "-----," you will not be surprised to learn, stands for an unprintable word (one that actually has more than five letters, but you HAVE heard about the world hyphen shortage, right?). For a better idea of what word that is, check some of the reviews of the play's Broadway production.

And now that we've (sort of) settled that: "Hat" made a splash on Broadway in 2011, with Chris Rock as one of its stars. And Guirgis is a pretty hot playwright, whose blistering and darkly comic "The Little Flower of East Orange" had a strong run at San Diego's Ion Theatre late last year.

Yet the show that precedes "Hat" is an eye-opener in its own right: Cygnet will put up the first local professional production of "Spring Awakening," the Tony Award-winning musical about struggles and yearnings among a group of German adolescents. (Just don't ask for a list of song titles, because, again, the hyphens.)

The company also will stage (as previously announced) "Company," the Stephen Sondheim-composed marital musical; the Southern California premiere of Jordan Harrison's "Maple and Vine"; Oscar Wilde's classic "The Importance of Being Earnest" and Tom Stoppard's "Earnest"-related "Travesties," to be presented in rotating repertory; plus the return of a radio-broadcast-style "A Christmas Carol."

Details and dates:

• "Company," July 5 to Aug. 18 (opens July 13): Cygnet artistic chief Sean Murray directs the 1970 Sondheim piece (with book by George Furth) about a bachelor pondering the pros and cons of married life on the occasion of his 35th birthday.

• "The Importance of Being Earnest," Sept. 18 to Oct. 27; and "Travesties," Sept. 19 to Oct. 27 (both open Sept. 28): Murray returns to do directorial double duty on these two shows, whose performances will alternate.

"Earnest" (subtitled "A Trivial Comedy for Serious People") is Wilde's witty and much-loved 1895 romantic farce; Stoppard's "Travesties," from 1974, takes its cues from Wilde's work in exploring art and life through the malleable memories of an elderly man who once appeared in "Earnest."

• "A Christmas Carol," Nov. 29 to Dec. 24 (opens Dec. 7): Presented by the "Cygnet Playhouse of the Air," Murray's adaptation of the Dickens tale unfolds as a '40s-style live radio drama. The piece, which premiered this past holiday season, will be directed by Kim Strassburger.

• "Maple and Vine," Jan. 16 to Feb. 16, 2014 (opens Jan. 25): Harrison's high-concept comedy has a modern-day couple ditching the daily grind to join a secret community of 1950s re-enactors. The play landed off-Broadway in 2011.

• "Spring Awakening," March 6 to April 27, 2014, opens March 15: This boundary-flouting (and controversial) show has been done a couple of times locally by youth companies, and the national tour of the Broadway production (named best musical in 2007) came through town in 2008.

But Cygnet, which has proved adept at staging musicals, will do the first local pro production of the work by writer-lyricist Steven Sater and composer Duncan Sheik.

"Spring Awakening" is based on Frank Wedekind's long-banned 1890s-era play of the same name; it looks unflinchingly at the toll exacted by repression (sexual and otherwise), and grapples with heavy themes that include abuse and suicide. The piece is powered by Sheik's rock score, with such memorable numbers as "Mama Who Bore Me" and "The Bitch of Living."

• "The ------ With the Hat," May 15 to June 15, 2014 (opens May 24): Guirgis' play, which attracted much buzz with its 2011 Broadway run starring Rock and Bobby Cannavale, focuses on a group of New Yorkers dealing with (and sometimes just dealing) drugs, plus plenty of other troubles.

Then there's that hat, which becomes evidence (at least in one character's mind) of romantic betrayal.

Guirgis has a gift for dialogue that's almost operatic in its rawness. But a memo to the easily offended: Cygnet's disclaimer notes that the play contains "drugs, violence, sexual situations and a lot of strong ----- language." (Hyphens ours.)

Season subscriptions will be available starting March 1. Details: (619) 337-1525 or cygnettheatre.com.